On this episode of newch World. Greatness is not a chance, It's a choice. George Washington didn't simply wake up as one of the greatest men in human history. His greatness was the sum of a lifetime of difficult and consequential choices. In his new book, Lessons in Liberty Thirty Rules for Living from Ten Extraordinary Americans, Jeremy Adams discusses the inspiring lives of extraordinary Americans from our past and what we can learn from them today. Here are just a few examples. George Washington's lifelong struggle to conquer his temper makes him a model for self help and self improvement. Daniel Enoway was a beloved Japanese American senator who carried out daring missions in World War Two despite being subjected to discrimination by the very nation he decided to defend. Eleven year old Clara Barton's role in nursing or injured brother back to health instilled the courage and ferocity that would later empower her to pioneer new nursing techniques during the Civil War. Here to talk about his new book, I am really pleased to welcome my guest, Jeremy Adams. He was the Daughters of the American Revolution twenty fourteen California Teacher of the Year, a finalist for the Carlston Family Foundation Outstanding Teachers of America Award. He is a social studies teacher at Bakersfield High School and was a longtime political science lecturer at California State University at Bakersfield. Jeremy, welcome back, and thank you for joining me a new world.

On this episode of newch World. Greatness is not a chance, It's a choice. George Washington didn't simply wake up as one of the greatest men in human history. His greatness was the sum of a lifetime of difficult and consequential choices. In his new book, Lessons in Liberty Thirty Rules for Living from Ten Extraordinary Americans, Jeremy Adams discusses the inspiring lives of extraordinary Americans from our past and what we can learn from them today. Here are just a few examples. George Washington's lifelong struggle to conquer his temper makes him a model for self help and self improvement. Daniel Enoway was a beloved Japanese American senator who carried out daring missions in World War Two despite being subjected to discrimination by the very nation he decided to defend. Eleven year old Clara Barton's role in nursing or injured brother back to health instilled the courage and ferocity that would later empower her to pioneer new nursing techniques during the Civil War. Here to talk about his new book, I am really pleased to welcome my guest, Jeremy Adams. He was the Daughters of the American Revolution twenty fourteen California Teacher of the Year, a finalist for the Carlston Family Foundation Outstanding Teachers of America Award. He is a social studies teacher at Bakersfield High School and was a longtime political science lecturer at California State University at Bakersfield. Jeremy, welcome back, and thank you for joining me a new world.

Mister speaker. I'm absolutely honored to be here.

Mister speaker. I'm absolutely honored to be here.

Thanks. Now, before we dive into the personal wisdom of some extraordinary Americans, I like to discuss a section of your introduction that I think is extremely important. You said to let the common American, not the elite, quote honor what is honorable, praise what is praiseworthy, and most of all, emulate which is highest and best, so we can take advantage of the miracle of human freedom. Well, the people you're describing are, of course human and therefore flawed. You continue to emphasize that quote. It is their fallibility that makes them so wholly worthy of study. This is remarkable wisdom at a time when we desperately need it. Now, in twoenty twenty two, you hit your twenty fifth year as a classroom teacher, and I have to say, you look like you must have started when you were four. You look so much younger than a teacher of twenty five years. But I'm curious. Have you enjoyed the process of interacting with young people and the process of sharing history with them.

Thanks. Now, before we dive into the personal wisdom of some extraordinary Americans, I like to discuss a section of your introduction that I think is extremely important. You said to let the common American, not the elite, quote honor what is honorable, praise what is praiseworthy, and most of all, emulate which is highest and best, so we can take advantage of the miracle of human freedom. Well, the people you're describing are, of course human and therefore flawed. You continue to emphasize that quote. It is their fallibility that makes them so wholly worthy of study. This is remarkable wisdom at a time when we desperately need it. Now, in twoenty twenty two, you hit your twenty fifth year as a classroom teacher, and I have to say, you look like you must have started when you were four. You look so much younger than a teacher of twenty five years. But I'm curious. Have you enjoyed the process of interacting with young people and the process of sharing history with them.

I do. It's the absolute center of my life. Just to be clear, I'm a teacher who writes. I'm not a writer who teaches. And one of the things that's so amazing about teaching as long as I have and thank you for the compliment about how young I look, I'll tell my wife one of the wonderful things about that is that when there is a sudden change, when there's a kind of profound pivot in the way that young people are behaving, in the way that they're acting, and in this instance, really what inspired this book, and the way that they are suddenly looking at their country and our country's history, you take notice about it. Things are different today in the last three or four years, than they were ten or fifteen or twenty years ago. I graduated from Washington and Lee University in nineteen ninety eight, and I guarantee that as a twenty year old, I wouldn't recognize a lot of the views and the beliefs that my young people have today about America and about American history. And so for people like you and me, we come across statistics that literally you have to read it two or three times to even believe it. When you see things like forty percent of gen Zers would characterize the Founding Fathers as villains, when fifty percent of high school students say that their lives are not very important. When you see that only fifty two percent of the country says that they would actually fight to defend the country, you know that something very recent and very radical has gone wrong in our classrooms and in our country. And that's what inspired me to write the book. I'm an unapologetic lover romantic of America, and the fact that it's getting harder and harder to kind of teach and inculcate that to my students is really what inspired me to write about it.

I do. It's the absolute center of my life. Just to be clear, I'm a teacher who writes. I'm not a writer who teaches. And one of the things that's so amazing about teaching as long as I have and thank you for the compliment about how young I look, I'll tell my wife one of the wonderful things about that is that when there is a sudden change, when there's a kind of profound pivot in the way that young people are behaving, in the way that they're acting, and in this instance, really what inspired this book, and the way that they are suddenly looking at their country and our country's history, you take notice about it. Things are different today in the last three or four years, than they were ten or fifteen or twenty years ago. I graduated from Washington and Lee University in nineteen ninety eight, and I guarantee that as a twenty year old, I wouldn't recognize a lot of the views and the beliefs that my young people have today about America and about American history. And so for people like you and me, we come across statistics that literally you have to read it two or three times to even believe it. When you see things like forty percent of gen Zers would characterize the Founding Fathers as villains, when fifty percent of high school students say that their lives are not very important. When you see that only fifty two percent of the country says that they would actually fight to defend the country, you know that something very recent and very radical has gone wrong in our classrooms and in our country. And that's what inspired me to write the book. I'm an unapologetic lover romantic of America, and the fact that it's getting harder and harder to kind of teach and inculcate that to my students is really what inspired me to write about it.

Well, let me just take a second before we talk about your new book and the insights you gained from great people. What do you sense when you've been in the classroom that whole time? What do use sense has happened?

Well, let me just take a second before we talk about your new book and the insights you gained from great people. What do you sense when you've been in the classroom that whole time? What do use sense has happened?

Don't mean to be arrogant. I know what's happened. My defining can is that young people are influenced by the adults around them. We absorb the viewpoints, the values, the behaviors of those people who we listen to and who we are surrounded by. And what are the voices that young people are listening to today, mister speaker. They're listening to TikTok. They're not talking to their parents. They're not being taught by sometimes particularly patriotic Americans. They're talking to fellow students. And so the stories of this country that you and I were brought up on, the stories that gave us a sense that we are part of history and that we have an obligation. Each generation has an obligation to renew the blessings of this country, that the proposition that Lincoln talked about, we can't take it for granted, and that we're only one generation away from losing the American promise. That value system is just simply not being taught or cultivated in the souls of our young people. And that's what's happening. This isn't something that happened twenty or thirty years ago. This is recent. I mean, I have so many young people who just don't stand and say the Pledge of Allegiance, they don't want to sing the national anthem, and when you ask them about it, they're not quoting Howard's in, they're not quoting Marxism. It's just almost reflexive just to kind of well, you know, this country's so flawed, or you know, I don't have much appreciation for it, and they just don't know anything. So cynicism is born with ignorance.

Don't mean to be arrogant. I know what's happened. My defining can is that young people are influenced by the adults around them. We absorb the viewpoints, the values, the behaviors of those people who we listen to and who we are surrounded by. And what are the voices that young people are listening to today, mister speaker. They're listening to TikTok. They're not talking to their parents. They're not being taught by sometimes particularly patriotic Americans. They're talking to fellow students. And so the stories of this country that you and I were brought up on, the stories that gave us a sense that we are part of history and that we have an obligation. Each generation has an obligation to renew the blessings of this country, that the proposition that Lincoln talked about, we can't take it for granted, and that we're only one generation away from losing the American promise. That value system is just simply not being taught or cultivated in the souls of our young people. And that's what's happening. This isn't something that happened twenty or thirty years ago. This is recent. I mean, I have so many young people who just don't stand and say the Pledge of Allegiance, they don't want to sing the national anthem, and when you ask them about it, they're not quoting Howard's in, they're not quoting Marxism. It's just almost reflexive just to kind of well, you know, this country's so flawed, or you know, I don't have much appreciation for it, and they just don't know anything. So cynicism is born with ignorance.

So you, in a sense, are trying to light a candle in the middle of that cultural darkness. And your book Lessons in Liberty, you did something I think really interesting and I really approve of. You picked ten extraordinary Americans that we can learn from and that we should pay attention to. Now, you picked George Washington, Daniel Nay, Clara Barton, Thomas Jefferson, Arthur Ash, Abraham Lincoln, Ben Nighthorse Campbell, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, James Madison, and Theodore Roosevelt. Why did you pick that particular group?

So you, in a sense, are trying to light a candle in the middle of that cultural darkness. And your book Lessons in Liberty, you did something I think really interesting and I really approve of. You picked ten extraordinary Americans that we can learn from and that we should pay attention to. Now, you picked George Washington, Daniel Nay, Clara Barton, Thomas Jefferson, Arthur Ash, Abraham Lincoln, Ben Nighthorse Campbell, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, James Madison, and Theodore Roosevelt. Why did you pick that particular group?

I did that on purpose when I wrote this book, and it's a gamble, I'll be honest. I mean, we live in highly partisan, idiological times, but I wanted to a book that showed that America is bigger than a party. It is bigger than an ideology. We are more than Republicans or Democrats. We are more than federalists or democratic Republicans. And I wanted to pick a broad cross section of Americans who come from different eras, both genders, black and white, liberal and conservative. We have very conservative and very liberal members of that coterie of ten people. That's why I chose I want this book to appeal to all of us, because we should all be able to sing the magical melody of American. We don't. We've been siloed. We are in these small camps. We don't talk to each other. And if you don't talk to each other, you're certainly not going to be inspired by one another. And that's really the central thesis of the book. If there is one thing that Americans are missing out on today, it's the inspiration that comes from studying these amazing men and women. I'm not a historian. This book is not three thousand pages long. It's two hundred pages long. And so I picked out what is right about these ten figures. Again, we love to nowadays pick apart historical figures and say, well, I'm not going to listen to George Washington or the Framers because they had slaves, or I'm not gonna listen to Ruth Bader Ginsberg because she's liberal. And what I would say is the question is not what they got wrong, it's what did they get right? And how can we use that in our own lives to be better Americans and to find joy and purpose.

I did that on purpose when I wrote this book, and it's a gamble, I'll be honest. I mean, we live in highly partisan, idiological times, but I wanted to a book that showed that America is bigger than a party. It is bigger than an ideology. We are more than Republicans or Democrats. We are more than federalists or democratic Republicans. And I wanted to pick a broad cross section of Americans who come from different eras, both genders, black and white, liberal and conservative. We have very conservative and very liberal members of that coterie of ten people. That's why I chose I want this book to appeal to all of us, because we should all be able to sing the magical melody of American. We don't. We've been siloed. We are in these small camps. We don't talk to each other. And if you don't talk to each other, you're certainly not going to be inspired by one another. And that's really the central thesis of the book. If there is one thing that Americans are missing out on today, it's the inspiration that comes from studying these amazing men and women. I'm not a historian. This book is not three thousand pages long. It's two hundred pages long. And so I picked out what is right about these ten figures. Again, we love to nowadays pick apart historical figures and say, well, I'm not going to listen to George Washington or the Framers because they had slaves, or I'm not gonna listen to Ruth Bader Ginsberg because she's liberal. And what I would say is the question is not what they got wrong, it's what did they get right? And how can we use that in our own lives to be better Americans and to find joy and purpose.

Well, I mean, in that context, if I can jump around from Mint to make your occasion, including everyone, I'm fascinated that you picked Arthur Ash. Why is Arthur Ash one of the ten?

Well, I mean, in that context, if I can jump around from Mint to make your occasion, including everyone, I'm fascinated that you picked Arthur Ash. Why is Arthur Ash one of the ten?

Well, if I'm being perfectly honest, first of all, I am a huge lover of tennis. That's somebody, mister speaker, that if you're under thirty five, nobody knows Arthur Ash. Some people you kind of know. If you're eighteen, nobody's gonna know. Daniel in no way you passed away in twenty twelve. Been nice horse. Campbell is still with us, but he hasn't been in public life since two thousand and four. That doesn't surprise me. But Arthur, ashe to me, is one of the titans of the twentieth century, and I think the real message. We all know that the largest tennis stadium in the world is named after him. We think of him as an icon when it comes to bringing awareness when we're talking about South African apartheid. But the thing that I love about Arthur Ashe is that he understood that you can make a difference in the world in your own way. You don't have to say and do what everybody else does, you know, And he is really beloved today. And I think it's interesting though, when you go back to the late nineteen sixties, people like Kareem Abdul Jabbar called him Arthur ass. Jesse Jackson confronted him and said, you know you're not arrogant enough. Well, I don't like your style. And Arthur ash was soft spoken, he was cerebral, and he did what we should all do, which is that we don't have to be in the history books. We don't have to be loud. And this is kind of where my conservatism comes from, which is to say that we're usually creatures who find meaning by making a difference in our own communities, in our own institutions and our own schools. And that's what scares me today. Mister speaker, is that so many people don't join anything. They don't join political parties, they don't go to church. They have a very negative view of almost all institutions. And Arthur, ashe knew better.

Well, if I'm being perfectly honest, first of all, I am a huge lover of tennis. That's somebody, mister speaker, that if you're under thirty five, nobody knows Arthur Ash. Some people you kind of know. If you're eighteen, nobody's gonna know. Daniel in no way you passed away in twenty twelve. Been nice horse. Campbell is still with us, but he hasn't been in public life since two thousand and four. That doesn't surprise me. But Arthur, ashe to me, is one of the titans of the twentieth century, and I think the real message. We all know that the largest tennis stadium in the world is named after him. We think of him as an icon when it comes to bringing awareness when we're talking about South African apartheid. But the thing that I love about Arthur Ashe is that he understood that you can make a difference in the world in your own way. You don't have to say and do what everybody else does, you know, And he is really beloved today. And I think it's interesting though, when you go back to the late nineteen sixties, people like Kareem Abdul Jabbar called him Arthur ass. Jesse Jackson confronted him and said, you know you're not arrogant enough. Well, I don't like your style. And Arthur ash was soft spoken, he was cerebral, and he did what we should all do, which is that we don't have to be in the history books. We don't have to be loud. And this is kind of where my conservatism comes from, which is to say that we're usually creatures who find meaning by making a difference in our own communities, in our own institutions and our own schools. And that's what scares me today. Mister speaker, is that so many people don't join anything. They don't join political parties, they don't go to church. They have a very negative view of almost all institutions. And Arthur, ashe knew better.

You were a little bit of colllectic. Clara Barton is a huge impact. But why did you pick her?

You were a little bit of colllectic. Clara Barton is a huge impact. But why did you pick her?

I thought, Clara Barton was? You know? It's interesting because I've taught political science for twenty five years, so I knew the big ones, right. I already knew a lot about Washington and Lincoln and Madison and Jefferson. Of course I learned a lot more, and all kinds of really interesting things I didn't know before. But I thought what was so interesting about Clara Barton? Two things? Once, she is so far ahead of her time, and the second thing is of anybody in here, mister speaker. She had this unapologetic American spirit, this idea that things can be better tomorrow than they are today, and just because something is the way that it is doesn't mean it always has to be that way. And I love that notion that America is a country where we can reach higher, dream bigger, and achieve things that couldn't happen in other places. And she was just gutsy. She was so gutsy, and she revolution the way that we treated soldiers on the battlefield. She realized it, instead of having them languish for two or three days, that if nurses could go out into the battlefield and treat them there, you could save these men by getting them water and supplies early. And the fact that she loves education. Remember, Massachusetts was really the only state early on that had a right to education. Other schools had to be paid for in other states. And she said, no, we should do this everywhere. And I just love that idea that tomorrow can be better than today. And I also love because I'm middle aged now. You know, when you reach middle age, you sometimes get comfortable and you don't want to meet new people, and you don't want to do new things, and you kind of just want to do what you've always done. And here is a woman who was hyperkinetic, always wanted to do something more, was easily bored, and always felt that her life had a new chapter in it that could make her country better. I loved that because I fall into that trap as well now that I'm in my mid forties.

I thought, Clara Barton was? You know? It's interesting because I've taught political science for twenty five years, so I knew the big ones, right. I already knew a lot about Washington and Lincoln and Madison and Jefferson. Of course I learned a lot more, and all kinds of really interesting things I didn't know before. But I thought what was so interesting about Clara Barton? Two things? Once, she is so far ahead of her time, and the second thing is of anybody in here, mister speaker. She had this unapologetic American spirit, this idea that things can be better tomorrow than they are today, and just because something is the way that it is doesn't mean it always has to be that way. And I love that notion that America is a country where we can reach higher, dream bigger, and achieve things that couldn't happen in other places. And she was just gutsy. She was so gutsy, and she revolution the way that we treated soldiers on the battlefield. She realized it, instead of having them languish for two or three days, that if nurses could go out into the battlefield and treat them there, you could save these men by getting them water and supplies early. And the fact that she loves education. Remember, Massachusetts was really the only state early on that had a right to education. Other schools had to be paid for in other states. And she said, no, we should do this everywhere. And I just love that idea that tomorrow can be better than today. And I also love because I'm middle aged now. You know, when you reach middle age, you sometimes get comfortable and you don't want to meet new people, and you don't want to do new things, and you kind of just want to do what you've always done. And here is a woman who was hyperkinetic, always wanted to do something more, was easily bored, and always felt that her life had a new chapter in it that could make her country better. I loved that because I fall into that trap as well now that I'm in my mid forties.

You know, I've always thought that Washington was probably the one indispensable man, that the degree to which we stand on his shoulders, and that his character was so extraordinary as a base on which literally the country reorganized itself. He wasn't essentially a writer, and so I think we tend to overvalue Jefferson, who was a great writer, and undervalue Washington. But at the same time, you make a point that I think if people visit Mount Vernon, which I recommend everybody, and they think about this guy physically large for his day and age, if he had played him today, he'd be an NFL offensive tackle.

You know, I've always thought that Washington was probably the one indispensable man, that the degree to which we stand on his shoulders, and that his character was so extraordinary as a base on which literally the country reorganized itself. He wasn't essentially a writer, and so I think we tend to overvalue Jefferson, who was a great writer, and undervalue Washington. But at the same time, you make a point that I think if people visit Mount Vernon, which I recommend everybody, and they think about this guy physically large for his day and age, if he had played him today, he'd be an NFL offensive tackle.

Yeah, yeah, you would.

Yeah, yeah, you would.

Wrote a huge horse, was a very good businessman, and that Mount Vernon they've sort of recreated a lotus worked very hard, but just assumed that that was life. I mean, you work hard because you could work hard. At the same time, he thought constantly. And I'm curious, what is it you wish people, young people in particular, would learn from George Washington?

Wrote a huge horse, was a very good businessman, and that Mount Vernon they've sort of recreated a lotus worked very hard, but just assumed that that was life. I mean, you work hard because you could work hard. At the same time, he thought constantly. And I'm curious, what is it you wish people, young people in particular, would learn from George Washington?

How long is the podcast if you go on and on and on. I mean, you know Jefferson, And I'm not going to wait into those dangerous waters of who's more essential Washington or Jefferson, because I do love me some Thomas Jefferson, But I think you're right. He is the indispensable man. Somebody else could have written the Declaration of Independence, somebody else could have been the third President. But as Jefferson said about Washington himself, people of that kind of moral quality come around about once every thousand years. And what I want young people to understand is that, mister speaker, you're right. He is the one man that if there was not a George Washington, I fervently, passionately believe there is no United States of America. We perhaps do not win the Revolutionary War. There is perhaps no constitutional convention because nobody has the moral gravitoss to stand in and unite the North in the South and to make it so that everybody believed that the right interests were at stake in revising the Articles of Confederation. Who knows what this weird new office called the President of the United States actually looks like if somebody doesn't step in and take over the reins and model it for posterity. But the thing I would say the most, mister speaker, and I feel very passionately about this, is that what Washington did was he showed that leadership in a republic the first liberal democratic republic in human history, looks fundamentally different than it does in a monarchical society, because what he understood is that ideals are bigger than ambitions. And so he did something, and he kept doing it over and over. He's at the meridian of his power, at the peak of his power. After he wins the Revolutionary War, he does something incredible. He gives up the power. He literally vanquishes the sword and retires Bauck to Mount Vernon, which is why he's called the American cincenatus. And again, what I want my students to understand is that just wasn't done in history. Alexander the Great would have done that. Cromwell wouldn't have done that. Julius Caesar Shures had didn't do that. Okay, Napoleon didn't do that. You always took military success and you turned it into political power. And what did he do. He did the opposite. He said, the country needs to be bigger than the ambition of the man. And so it's interesting because you know, King George the Third, when he heard that Washington was going to you know, surrender his position, did not believe it. And he said, but if he does give up his power, then he is the greatest man in all the world. And he did give up the power, and he was the greatest man in all the world. And let's not forget he did it again at the end of his second term of office.

How long is the podcast if you go on and on and on. I mean, you know Jefferson, And I'm not going to wait into those dangerous waters of who's more essential Washington or Jefferson, because I do love me some Thomas Jefferson, But I think you're right. He is the indispensable man. Somebody else could have written the Declaration of Independence, somebody else could have been the third President. But as Jefferson said about Washington himself, people of that kind of moral quality come around about once every thousand years. And what I want young people to understand is that, mister speaker, you're right. He is the one man that if there was not a George Washington, I fervently, passionately believe there is no United States of America. We perhaps do not win the Revolutionary War. There is perhaps no constitutional convention because nobody has the moral gravitoss to stand in and unite the North in the South and to make it so that everybody believed that the right interests were at stake in revising the Articles of Confederation. Who knows what this weird new office called the President of the United States actually looks like if somebody doesn't step in and take over the reins and model it for posterity. But the thing I would say the most, mister speaker, and I feel very passionately about this, is that what Washington did was he showed that leadership in a republic the first liberal democratic republic in human history, looks fundamentally different than it does in a monarchical society, because what he understood is that ideals are bigger than ambitions. And so he did something, and he kept doing it over and over. He's at the meridian of his power, at the peak of his power. After he wins the Revolutionary War, he does something incredible. He gives up the power. He literally vanquishes the sword and retires Bauck to Mount Vernon, which is why he's called the American cincenatus. And again, what I want my students to understand is that just wasn't done in history. Alexander the Great would have done that. Cromwell wouldn't have done that. Julius Caesar Shures had didn't do that. Okay, Napoleon didn't do that. You always took military success and you turned it into political power. And what did he do. He did the opposite. He said, the country needs to be bigger than the ambition of the man. And so it's interesting because you know, King George the Third, when he heard that Washington was going to you know, surrender his position, did not believe it. And he said, but if he does give up his power, then he is the greatest man in all the world. And he did give up the power, and he was the greatest man in all the world. And let's not forget he did it again at the end of his second term of office.

If you go to Annapolis, they actually have a room recreated where there are statues where the members of the Continental Congress are actually sitting as Washington comes in to give them his sword. And there's a statue of Washington and he is standing while they are sitting because he is reporting to them and they are in charge. Everybody understood the statement he was making. It's really a remarkable moment.

If you go to Annapolis, they actually have a room recreated where there are statues where the members of the Continental Congress are actually sitting as Washington comes in to give them his sword. And there's a statue of Washington and he is standing while they are sitting because he is reporting to them and they are in charge. Everybody understood the statement he was making. It's really a remarkable moment.

First of all, now I have to go to Annapolis. I've never been there. I'd left to go to it. Now it's now on my bucket list. That's one of the lessons that I put in the book is that you know, for better or worse, appearances do matter. And he was tall, he was strong, He had this kind of elegance that you know, I think we all aspire to, but he came by it very very naturally. But what I really love about it, and you just kind of alluded to it, and I think this is another lesson that all Americans need to understand is that the root of power in government. We don't get our rights from government. Government doesn't give us our rights. Nature gives us our rights, and we let our leaders borrow that power every now and then because our leaders are there to serve us, not the other way around. We are citizens, not subjects. I don't know if you watch Game of Thrones, but in the show Game of Thrones, they're constantly saying, bend the knee, bend the knee. And what Washington was showing there was by God. In America, we don't bin the knee right because we're each citizens who are equal in are claim to individual rights and freedom. Even if you are rich, doesn't matter if you're in power. Were all the same.

First of all, now I have to go to Annapolis. I've never been there. I'd left to go to it. Now it's now on my bucket list. That's one of the lessons that I put in the book is that you know, for better or worse, appearances do matter. And he was tall, he was strong, He had this kind of elegance that you know, I think we all aspire to, but he came by it very very naturally. But what I really love about it, and you just kind of alluded to it, and I think this is another lesson that all Americans need to understand is that the root of power in government. We don't get our rights from government. Government doesn't give us our rights. Nature gives us our rights, and we let our leaders borrow that power every now and then because our leaders are there to serve us, not the other way around. We are citizens, not subjects. I don't know if you watch Game of Thrones, but in the show Game of Thrones, they're constantly saying, bend the knee, bend the knee. And what Washington was showing there was by God. In America, we don't bin the knee right because we're each citizens who are equal in are claim to individual rights and freedom. Even if you are rich, doesn't matter if you're in power. Were all the same.

You had mentioned how much Washington admired Cato, who is the last senator to stand firm against Caesar, and who prefers death to bending his knee to Caesar, and Cato became a play Cato, a tragedy by Joseph Addison. The Whigs, who were the critics of the British king, couldn't openly criticize him because that would be treason, but they could write plays about the Roman era, which everybody understood was a reference to what they would have said about King George, except that it would be treason. Well, Washington loved that play so much that when they had the long difficult winter at Valley Forge, he regularly had the play performed because he was trying to inculcate in his officers and men this war is about freedom, it's about liberty, it's about defeating tyranny. And in that sense, I think Washington is the center of who we became. But the other person who you also pick in here to learn from is the man who enabled us to survive the greatest threat to that system, and that's Abraham Lincoln. How do you think about and how do you approach Lincoln?

You had mentioned how much Washington admired Cato, who is the last senator to stand firm against Caesar, and who prefers death to bending his knee to Caesar, and Cato became a play Cato, a tragedy by Joseph Addison. The Whigs, who were the critics of the British king, couldn't openly criticize him because that would be treason, but they could write plays about the Roman era, which everybody understood was a reference to what they would have said about King George, except that it would be treason. Well, Washington loved that play so much that when they had the long difficult winter at Valley Forge, he regularly had the play performed because he was trying to inculcate in his officers and men this war is about freedom, it's about liberty, it's about defeating tyranny. And in that sense, I think Washington is the center of who we became. But the other person who you also pick in here to learn from is the man who enabled us to survive the greatest threat to that system, and that's Abraham Lincoln. How do you think about and how do you approach Lincoln?

I think, first of all, for me, I wasn't trying to say anything new about Abraham Lincoln. I mean, there are so many incredible historians out there who literally spend their entire lives going into the minutia of Abraham Lincoln that my goal as a writer and as a teacher was to look at it from a different lens. And I think that when you approach these great men like a Lincoln or a Washington or Madison, you have to do it with a very specific aim in mind, and my goal in this book was kind of this lens of self help. What lessons does Abraham Lincoln have that he can essentially bequeath to us as Americans today. I mean, you referenced this a minute ago with Washington. I think that's so wise, which is that you know, he looked back in time and he understood that, you know, the models from the past can inspire us today. And you know, you mentioned Livy, who is one of these great Roman historians. It's kind of a tragedy by the way that only a fourth of his works actually survive. But I think what's interesting is these men, especially the founding fathers, you know, they were endlessly inspired by what came before them. You read the letters of Madison and Jefferson and Hamilton and Washington, and they're constantly talking about Caesar, They're talking about Cato, they're talking about Cicero, They're talking about all of these men. And so I think it's important to note that when we're talking about Lincoln, you know, Lincoln is somebody who can inspire all of us, because here's a guy who is the quintessential rags to not riches per se, but to the peak of power. So many of my students come from the bottom side of luck, mister speaker, and I think it's important for them to see that. Look, some of these legends are true, and young people aren't warning these legends, you know. I mean, he really did grow up in a log cabin in Kentucky. He really was abandoned by his father for long stretches of time. When he took the second oath of office, the clouds really did clear, the sun really did shone on him like a spot like and when he died, they really did say, now he belongs to the ages. I mean, these aren't fictional tales. These are inspiring stories that are useful in our lives today.

I think, first of all, for me, I wasn't trying to say anything new about Abraham Lincoln. I mean, there are so many incredible historians out there who literally spend their entire lives going into the minutia of Abraham Lincoln that my goal as a writer and as a teacher was to look at it from a different lens. And I think that when you approach these great men like a Lincoln or a Washington or Madison, you have to do it with a very specific aim in mind, and my goal in this book was kind of this lens of self help. What lessons does Abraham Lincoln have that he can essentially bequeath to us as Americans today. I mean, you referenced this a minute ago with Washington. I think that's so wise, which is that you know, he looked back in time and he understood that, you know, the models from the past can inspire us today. And you know, you mentioned Livy, who is one of these great Roman historians. It's kind of a tragedy by the way that only a fourth of his works actually survive. But I think what's interesting is these men, especially the founding fathers, you know, they were endlessly inspired by what came before them. You read the letters of Madison and Jefferson and Hamilton and Washington, and they're constantly talking about Caesar, They're talking about Cato, they're talking about Cicero, They're talking about all of these men. And so I think it's important to note that when we're talking about Lincoln, you know, Lincoln is somebody who can inspire all of us, because here's a guy who is the quintessential rags to not riches per se, but to the peak of power. So many of my students come from the bottom side of luck, mister speaker, and I think it's important for them to see that. Look, some of these legends are true, and young people aren't warning these legends, you know. I mean, he really did grow up in a log cabin in Kentucky. He really was abandoned by his father for long stretches of time. When he took the second oath of office, the clouds really did clear, the sun really did shone on him like a spot like and when he died, they really did say, now he belongs to the ages. I mean, these aren't fictional tales. These are inspiring stories that are useful in our lives today.

I had this experience. I was as a member of Congress sitting on the Capitol steps when Ronald Reagan was sworn in in nineteen eighty and when Jimmy Carter got up to say his farewell comments, the sky was clouded over and literally, as Reagan got up to take the oath of office, the clouds parted, the sun came out, everything was blue. I mean, it was crazy. These things do happen in the real world. The other person I think is really intriguing that you talk about is Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who had a very long life. You talked earlier about staying active. I mean, she was remarkably active for a very long time. Why did you pick her?

I had this experience. I was as a member of Congress sitting on the Capitol steps when Ronald Reagan was sworn in in nineteen eighty and when Jimmy Carter got up to say his farewell comments, the sky was clouded over and literally, as Reagan got up to take the oath of office, the clouds parted, the sun came out, everything was blue. I mean, it was crazy. These things do happen in the real world. The other person I think is really intriguing that you talk about is Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who had a very long life. You talked earlier about staying active. I mean, she was remarkably active for a very long time. Why did you pick her?

I picked her because I admire her. I'm personally conservative, But there's so much about her life. I mean, I think obviously her legal opinions are liberal. I certainly pie don't agree with her interpretation of the fourteenth of Thement equal protection clause. But I think she really demonstrated a life of conservative values. I think she understood the things that tend to lead to human fulfillment. People forget that Ruth Bader Ginsberg didn't like Roe V Wade, that she was not on Bill Clinton's original list because of all people, women's groups opposed her. Now she's such an icon, you know, you're talking about her workout routine. They were featuring that on late night television. She's such a celebrity, and yet people forget that she actually wasn't seen like that when she was nominated. But I mean, she was a heroic mother, a wonderful wife, Her husband Marty got testicular cancer when he was at Harvard, and what did she do? She took over his classes, helped him write his papers, helped to raise their daughter. Jane talk about having a kind of connective tissue to family. She understood that. But I think, if I'm being honest, the thing I loved most about her is that I think, like a lot of Americans, I love her relationship and her friendship with Antonin Scalia. I think that it demonstrates that we can have genuine love and affection for fellow Americans with whom we have strong political disagreements. Jefferson famously said, every difference of opinion is not a difference of principle. Barack Obama said, we can disagree without being disagreeable. And I think if you're looking for a way to model how we talk to fellow Americans, they did it quite well. It does scare me, mister Speaker, that I know so many people nowadays who simply aren't friends with anybody who disagrees with them politically. You talked about Ronald Reagan. I was touched by the story of Speaker Tip O'Neil going to the foot of his bed on the night that he was almost killed and praying to God to save his life. You know, I'm touched by the fact that Daniel Noway's best friend in the Senate was Ted Stevens from Alaska. I'm touched by the friendship between George H. W. Bush and Bill Clinton as they move beyond politics. I think these are stories that can inspire us to talk to one another in a more meaningful way. I mean, I don't know about you. I have a lot of different opinions at forty seven than I had twenty years ago, and that's because I have a lot of friends who think differently than I do. It makes me a better person.

I picked her because I admire her. I'm personally conservative, But there's so much about her life. I mean, I think obviously her legal opinions are liberal. I certainly pie don't agree with her interpretation of the fourteenth of Thement equal protection clause. But I think she really demonstrated a life of conservative values. I think she understood the things that tend to lead to human fulfillment. People forget that Ruth Bader Ginsberg didn't like Roe V Wade, that she was not on Bill Clinton's original list because of all people, women's groups opposed her. Now she's such an icon, you know, you're talking about her workout routine. They were featuring that on late night television. She's such a celebrity, and yet people forget that she actually wasn't seen like that when she was nominated. But I mean, she was a heroic mother, a wonderful wife, Her husband Marty got testicular cancer when he was at Harvard, and what did she do? She took over his classes, helped him write his papers, helped to raise their daughter. Jane talk about having a kind of connective tissue to family. She understood that. But I think, if I'm being honest, the thing I loved most about her is that I think, like a lot of Americans, I love her relationship and her friendship with Antonin Scalia. I think that it demonstrates that we can have genuine love and affection for fellow Americans with whom we have strong political disagreements. Jefferson famously said, every difference of opinion is not a difference of principle. Barack Obama said, we can disagree without being disagreeable. And I think if you're looking for a way to model how we talk to fellow Americans, they did it quite well. It does scare me, mister Speaker, that I know so many people nowadays who simply aren't friends with anybody who disagrees with them politically. You talked about Ronald Reagan. I was touched by the story of Speaker Tip O'Neil going to the foot of his bed on the night that he was almost killed and praying to God to save his life. You know, I'm touched by the fact that Daniel Noway's best friend in the Senate was Ted Stevens from Alaska. I'm touched by the friendship between George H. W. Bush and Bill Clinton as they move beyond politics. I think these are stories that can inspire us to talk to one another in a more meaningful way. I mean, I don't know about you. I have a lot of different opinions at forty seven than I had twenty years ago, and that's because I have a lot of friends who think differently than I do. It makes me a better person.

This is a remarkable book. You emphasize the insights that are emotional and involve principle more than facts that you are trying to wrestle with how to use history to actually pass on timeless values rather than how to get us back into history, which is a great, great talent that you have. How did you learn to do that?

This is a remarkable book. You emphasize the insights that are emotional and involve principle more than facts that you are trying to wrestle with how to use history to actually pass on timeless values rather than how to get us back into history, which is a great, great talent that you have. How did you learn to do that?

I hope it succeeded, and thank you for those kind of words. I really appreciate it. I will be perfectly honest with you like you. I love these thick, eight or nine hundred page tomes that you sometimes read about these American figures in the past, and this book is not that at all. By the way, my book is two hundred pages. Sometimes when I would be reading these things or learning about these things in college or again, I'm not a public official like you, or you're a historic figure. I'm not even like that. I'm just teaching this stuff. But when you walk into some of these places, there's a sensation that resonates within your soul. There is a kind of power that you feel in the American story that I don't want to get emotional here on your podcast, but to be able to be a citizen of this country, I want people to understand how profoundly lucky we are to exist in this time of human history. No, liberty is not the rule. Oppression is the rule. The Constitution is not the rule. It's monarchy. It's not private property, it's not opportunity, it's not pluralism. These are not the rules of history. They are the exceptions. And yet we get the bounty of freedom. We get to enjoy these opportunities because of the sacrifices and the wisdom of these amazing men and women who came before us. And it didn't happen on accident. I am absolutely sick and tired of cynics and naysayers who believe that the essence of America is rooted in the worst things that we've ever done, that because of something we've done in the past, that that forever invites the American character today. I absolutely reject that, and I believe that. Again, we talk about looking backwards. I talk a lot about Plutarch. We've talked about Livy. Plutarch was I think the most important historian for the founders, because they use Plutarch to look back and say, look at this Greek, look at this Roman, look at Cicero and Cato and Cincinnatus and Alexander the Great and Pericles. I want to be like them. I want their ideals and what they achieved to affect my life today. Well, I can't imagine a life, mister Speaker, without books and movies and history, these things that kind of give me a sense of enchantment and grandeur and inspire me to write this book. And so many people today they don't know anything about these amazing men and women. They don't know anything. All they know is what's bad. And again that's fine. We should know what's bad. But my book is about what they got right in the human condition and how those lessons can affect us. To be perfectly honest, it's not a history book. Really, it's a practical book. It's an actionable book, right. I mean, it's like I look at these ten men and women, and they're like buried treasure. They're in our backyard. They're about a foot deep. We just got to get little shovel and earth them and really enrich ourselves by their wisdom and their inspiration. So that's why I did.

I hope it succeeded, and thank you for those kind of words. I really appreciate it. I will be perfectly honest with you like you. I love these thick, eight or nine hundred page tomes that you sometimes read about these American figures in the past, and this book is not that at all. By the way, my book is two hundred pages. Sometimes when I would be reading these things or learning about these things in college or again, I'm not a public official like you, or you're a historic figure. I'm not even like that. I'm just teaching this stuff. But when you walk into some of these places, there's a sensation that resonates within your soul. There is a kind of power that you feel in the American story that I don't want to get emotional here on your podcast, but to be able to be a citizen of this country, I want people to understand how profoundly lucky we are to exist in this time of human history. No, liberty is not the rule. Oppression is the rule. The Constitution is not the rule. It's monarchy. It's not private property, it's not opportunity, it's not pluralism. These are not the rules of history. They are the exceptions. And yet we get the bounty of freedom. We get to enjoy these opportunities because of the sacrifices and the wisdom of these amazing men and women who came before us. And it didn't happen on accident. I am absolutely sick and tired of cynics and naysayers who believe that the essence of America is rooted in the worst things that we've ever done, that because of something we've done in the past, that that forever invites the American character today. I absolutely reject that, and I believe that. Again, we talk about looking backwards. I talk a lot about Plutarch. We've talked about Livy. Plutarch was I think the most important historian for the founders, because they use Plutarch to look back and say, look at this Greek, look at this Roman, look at Cicero and Cato and Cincinnatus and Alexander the Great and Pericles. I want to be like them. I want their ideals and what they achieved to affect my life today. Well, I can't imagine a life, mister Speaker, without books and movies and history, these things that kind of give me a sense of enchantment and grandeur and inspire me to write this book. And so many people today they don't know anything about these amazing men and women. They don't know anything. All they know is what's bad. And again that's fine. We should know what's bad. But my book is about what they got right in the human condition and how those lessons can affect us. To be perfectly honest, it's not a history book. Really, it's a practical book. It's an actionable book, right. I mean, it's like I look at these ten men and women, and they're like buried treasure. They're in our backyard. They're about a foot deep. We just got to get little shovel and earth them and really enrich ourselves by their wisdom and their inspiration. So that's why I did.

It well to remarkable achievement. You must be an amazing teacher, because you have passion, you have knowledge, You clearly care, You care about your students, you care about your country, and I think what you've done is a significant contribution. It's been great to have you back again. I want to thank you for joining me. Your new book, Lessons in Liberty thirty Rules for Living from ten Extraordinary Americans, is available now in Amazon and in bookstores everywhere. I think it's an incredibly important book and we can all learn a lot of inspiring lessons from the people you have profiled. So thank you very much for joining me.

It well to remarkable achievement. You must be an amazing teacher, because you have passion, you have knowledge, You clearly care, You care about your students, you care about your country, and I think what you've done is a significant contribution. It's been great to have you back again. I want to thank you for joining me. Your new book, Lessons in Liberty thirty Rules for Living from ten Extraordinary Americans, is available now in Amazon and in bookstores everywhere. I think it's an incredibly important book and we can all learn a lot of inspiring lessons from the people you have profiled. So thank you very much for joining me.

Thank you, mister Speaker, was a great honor. Thank you again.

Thank you, mister Speaker, was a great honor. Thank you again.

Thank you to my guest Jeremy Adams. You can get a link to buy his new book, Lessons in Liberty thirty Rules for Living from ten extra Ordinary Americans on our show page at neutworld dot com. News World is produced by gingwid three sixty and iHeartMedia. Our executive producer is Guernsey Sloan. Our researcher is Rachel Peterson. Shane O'Grady helped produce this episode. The artwork for the show, which created by Steve Penley. Special thanks to the team at Gingwish three sixty. If you've been enjoying news World, I hope you'll go to Apple Podcast and both rate us with five stars and give us a review so others can learn what it's all about. Right now, listeners of neut World can sign up for my three free weekly columns at gingrichree sixty dot com slash newsletter. I'm newt Gingrich. This is news World

Thank you to my guest Jeremy Adams. You can get a link to buy his new book, Lessons in Liberty thirty Rules for Living from ten extra Ordinary Americans on our show page at neutworld dot com. News World is produced by gingwid three sixty and iHeartMedia. Our executive producer is Guernsey Sloan. Our researcher is Rachel Peterson. Shane O'Grady helped produce this episode. The artwork for the show, which created by Steve Penley. Special thanks to the team at Gingwish three sixty. If you've been enjoying news World, I hope you'll go to Apple Podcast and both rate us with five stars and give us a review so others can learn what it's all about. Right now, listeners of neut World can sign up for my three free weekly columns at gingrichree sixty dot com slash newsletter. I'm newt Gingrich. This is news World